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•European Commission Chairman Jean-Claude Juncker said the second
tranche of $600 million in EU financial assistance will be given to
Ukraine in the next few weeks, after the government files a bill in
the Rada ending the moratorium on exports of timber. He said Friday
that Ukraine is effectively implementing reforms and therefore
Ukrainians should receive something in recognition of their success.

•Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman called on international partners
to help create a recovery plan for Ukraine similar to the Marshall
Plan, Interfax Ukraine reported. Groysman said that in 2014, the
European Union and donors offered Ukraine a "Marshall Plan,"
planned to hold a donor conference in February 2015 and began making
preparations. However, nothing ever came of that offer, and Groysman
wants to revisit it now.

•Economic Development and Trade Minister Stepan
Kubiv said unprofitable or bankrupt state-owned businesses will be
privatized or liquidated, adding that the government has programs in
place to make that happen, Ukrinform reported. Kubiv said 3,500 such
businesses are unprofitable and more than 1,000 are bankrupt. He also
said Ukraine has a separate program to address companies focused on
helping to modernize the Ukrainian military.

•The Deposit Guarantee Fund expects state-run Oschadbank, the
second-largest bank in the country by assets, to become part of the
fund in the middle of 2018, managing director of the fund Kostiantyn
Vorushylin said, Interfax Ukraine reported. The reform program for
state-run banks envisions partial privatization of Oschadbank in that
time frame.

•The European Investment Bank launched a program Friday in Kyiv
that will support small and medium-sized businesses, Ekonomicheskaya
Pravda reported. Through assistance with financing and other means of
support, the program will help Ukrainian companies make the most of
the opportunities afforded by the free-trade agreement with the EU.

•The Kyiv City Council voted to allocate
$22.8 million to complete construction on the Podilsko-Voskresensky
Bridge, Ukrinform reported. Kyiv Mayor Vitaly Klitschko said
previously that the bridge will be open in three years.

•The forest record-keeping project created by the State
Forest Agency could garner the support of the World Bank, according to Interfax Ukraine. With realistic
information about forest record-keeping, the agency could
improve the public forest cadastre and permanently monitor the forests
remotely. A working group to discuss
approaches to managing forests was created.

•Ukraine is preparing to launch new rail service to Poland, Hungary
and Slovakia this year, Novoe Vremya reported. The routes being
planned are Volhynia-Chelm, Mukacheve-Budapest and Uzhgorod-Kosice.

•The U.S. Department of Agriculture
revised its grain exports forecast for
Ukraine in the current agricultural year (July-June), bumping up the
total by 1.5 million tons from January. According to the USDA
website, the wheat exports forecast was revised up by 800,000 tons and
corn exports by 700,000 tons. In related news, the record 2016 grain
harvest totaled 66 million tons, of which nearly 42 percent was
exported.

•Ukrainian automotive plants produced almost 400 cars and buses in
January, a rise of roughly 33 percent from the same month the
previous year, Novoe Vremya reported.

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